


Oh, The Places You'll Go!

by imissmycatsface



Series: dumbasses go to space, make things glow, and meet the alien overlords [TM] [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, BUT THERE WILL BE DON'T WORRY, Based on a Tumblr Post, Elemental Magic, Fandom Allusions & Cliches & References, Gen, I promise, I'll leave it for the works to follow, I'm So Excited, IN SPACE!, Magic, No Aliens, These people are i-gen people grown up to be astronauts, They don't have magic until they're in space, This fic is mostly just a way for me to contemplate what it would be like to have magic, Wandless Magic, and i want to explore as many as possible, because theres a lot of ideas i have for it, but speaking of fuck don't worry there's not much swearing in the actual fic, if you think they won't reference classics and fandoms THINK THE FUCK AGAIN, the 'galactic society' part of the prompt won't actually show up in this fic, this is going to be a series, well... kind of??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:53:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21688663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imissmycatsface/pseuds/imissmycatsface
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: Humans were placed onto Earth due to it's natural ability to nullify magic. Immediately after leaving the gravity field, abilities start resurfacing. Upon learning that humanity is going to send people to Mars, galactic society becomes worried; humans were the most powerful sorcerers in the galaxy.Of course, humans had forgotten this a long, long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that both the native  and the humans had forgotten that they were actually two separate races, one from the Earth and one from the stars. They'd forgotten about the worshiping their ancestors had done when the humans arrived, about the portraits in their art and the stories about strange and wonderful things these people could do. Eventually, magic became a dream, only found in works of fiction, and widely believed to be unreal.But I'm getting off track; this isn't a story about the past. It's a story about the future....[Edit: Added information about the timeline of the series in the form of {Day #/488}]
Relationships: Original Character & Original Character
Series: dumbasses go to space, make things glow, and meet the alien overlords [TM] [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1641073
Comments: 9
Kudos: 10





	Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Days 7-14/488:

It was a week after lift-off, and Kris was starting to think he was hallucinating. Or that someone was pulling a prank on him.

It had started yesterday, when the ship had finally left orbit after stocking up on supplies from the ISS. As the first manned journey to Mars, the crew had to be extra careful in making sure everything was fine. The cost of the ship had been enormous, and NASA would undoubtedly kill them if they died because something had malfunctioned.

In any case, the first particular incident that he'd actually noticed was a cool breeze that smelled like the sea sweeping by him. He actually _hadn't_ noticed it at first, until he'd remembered that he was in a space ship and that there was _literally no way_ that was possible. Incidentally, he'd just been thinking longingly about his small apartment in the Bay Area, San Francisco. He'd brushed it off as his mind playing tricks on him.

The second incident was a few hours after that, when he and his crew-mates were getting ready for bed, and there was almost no explanation for it except that the entire crew was in on a prank, and while Liessa definitely gave off prankster vibes, he doubted that shy and timid James or serious Michelle would play along with something like that.

It had happened like this:

"Daniel, dude, can you pass me my water bottle?" said Kris, halfheartedly holding out one of his hands behind him while he set up his mattress and sleeping bag. A few seconds later, he felt something cold brush against his hand, and, pulling it around to his face, saw that it was indeed his water bottle.

"Hey, thanks, man," he'd started to say, turning around to shoot Daniel a smile.

The entire crew was staring at him, and he'd trailed off, wondering what was going on.

"What the fuck," whispered Michelle, and Kris had been startled to note that this had been the first time he'd heard her swear. Or ask a question, now that he thought about it. Or sound like she really cared about something.

"What?" he'd asked, starting to get a little freaked out.

"Dude," Peter broke the silence. "Your water bottle just unhooked itself and floated to you on its own."

Kris stared. Blinked. Then giggled a bit when Peter's words caught up with him. "Oh! Nice try, I'll admit, that execution was flawless. Daniel threw it to me, though, I know better."

A movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he moved his head to see Daniel shake his head.

"I never touched your bottle, man. Nobody else did, either."

Kris had raised an eyebrow, looking around at them all in wry amusement. "Well, I dunno what to say, except that I'm kinda sad y'all thought you could trick me like this. I'm not _that_ gullible, dammit." He'd turned back around, lifting his water bottle to his lips, and started fiddling with his bed again. Behind him, he could hear the others slowly start to do the same thing.

This was the cherry on goddamn top, though.

A few meters in front of him crouched James, who was their mechanic. He was tinkering with one of the many things in the ship and had a bunch of tools floating around him, which wouldn't be so unusual in a spaceship if it weren't for one thing: Their ship was _designed_ to simulate gravity. Ergo, those tools _shouldn't be floating_.

_What the fuck, James._

_What the actual fuck_.

As he watched, James, who seemed completely absorbed in whatever he was doing, let go of the tool he had been using, and Kris watched in fascination mixed with disbelief as the screwdriver James had let go of started floating as well, while the flashlight floated into his outstretched hand.

"What the fuck," Kris said numbly, and noted absently that as soon as he spoke, the tools froze where they were and then fell to the ground with a clatter.

James startled at the noise and fell on his back with a thud, groaning. In an uncharacteristic move, he glared at Kris upside down. "What was that for?"

Kris just stared. He opened his mouth to explain, but the words wouldn't come out. He stood there for seconds with his mouth open, trying to say it, before closing it and closing his eyes briefly. Then, slowly, he opened his eyes and his mouth, inhaled, and said, "I guess you guys weren't lying yesterday about my water bottle, huh."

"Obviously." James winced, pulling himself up slowly and massaging his shoulder. "What does that have to do with..?"

Kris stared some more, his mind unable to comprehend the words he wanted to say. "Dude," he started, then stopped, then started again, " _dude,_ your tools were floating."

James stared at Kris, mouth agape but otherwise unresponsive. Then he sighed, put his head in his hands and said, "What the heck."

Kris couldn't agree more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They called a crew meeting. Interestingly, Michelle and Peter had called for one around the same time.

Kris started. "James did it too."

Liessa and Daniel exchanged a glance. "Did what?" asked Liessa.

"His tools were floating around him while he was working."

"Jesus," muttered Peter, "is this some sort of mass hallucination or something? Because I swear to god I was feeling the littlest bit cold and then smoke was coming out of my mouth and I felt warmer again."

"Mmm," Michelle hummed in agreement. " I was wondering whether it was snowing at home a couple hours ago and then _poof_. There was a pile of snow in my hands. I fed it to the water reclaimer, but it came up as new. It didn't come from the water already in this ship."

"Do we tell command?" Daniel wondered. Michelle shook her head immediately.

"No. No way in hell. They won't believe us, and I refuse to sound insane without any proof. If we catch something on tape or learn to do whatever this is on command, maybe, but not before then. That's an order."

"Alright, captain, calm down. That's a fair point." Liessa agreed. "I kinda feel left out now, though."

"Well, it'll probably happen eventually," retorted Daniel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Surprisingly, it took almost week for something strange to happen to Liessa, but Daniel followed shortly behind by a matter of hours.

Even more surprisingly, the first time someone did something on purpose was the day after that.

Completely unsurprisingly, it was Michelle that did it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the past week the crew had started spending their down time together. Not that they hadn't spent time together before, but now at any opportunity they tried to get together to try to do... Whatever it was that it was.

Of course, people weren't just practicing. Michelle mostly read and Daniel didn't actually seem that interested in trying himself, so he was just watching the others scrunch up their faces in concentration, occasionally snorting at a particularly funny thing one of them did.

Kris was feeling a bit foolish, holding his hand out to his water bottle and glaring at it in concentration. It helped a little bit that everyone else practicing looked just as ridiculous or even more so; Peter was trying to see if he could shoot a web using his wrist (inspired by his namesake, Peter Parker, obviously.)

Just when he felt as though the slightest tingle was going down his back, a book floated by him, and he lost his concentration.

Gaping, he and the others watched as it floated towards Michelle, who had her hand out. As it landed in her hand, she looked up and noticed everyone staring.

"Losers," she said, closing her hand around the book so it wouldn't fall down. "You're all thinking about it too hard. It doesn't take any effort, it's like breathing. Just ask the thing to do whatever the fuck you're trying to do. If you concentrate too hard you'll probably set fire to, like, the entire ship."

She opened the book and started reading. After a few seconds Peter cried out, "Wait, hang on a second!"

Michelle peered slowly out from over her book, visibly unimpressed. Peter carried on.

"How do _you_ know that?!"

Michelle sighed. "I thought astronauts were supposed to be _smart_ ," she muttered. "Common sense. None of you realised you were doing whatever when it first happened, therefore it doesn't take any effort or conscious thought. Since you guys are putting in a lot of effort to do it now and it still isn't working, it _can't_ be done with a LOT of effort, or it's just a lot harder. Like I said, it's like breathing. Usually done without effort and without notice, but you can take note of it and as long as you don't tense all the muscles in your throat trying to breath, which I suspect is what you guys are doing, you can do it on purpose. There, try again. If you all don't get it first go, I will be disappointed but not surprised."

They started to turn around before she added, "And it helps to be fully confident it'll happen, and don't freak out when it does."

She seemed to get back into her book for real this time, so Kris took a steadying breath (noticing how easy it was) and, shrugging, gave it another go.

He side-eyed his water bottle and thought _, c'mere. And do a flip on the way_.

Remembering Michelle's words, he tried not to freak out when the bottle, shuddering slightly (probably because he was still freaking out a little on the inside), lifted and headed straight for his outstretched hand. To Kris's amusement, it actually _did_ do a little flip roughly halfway to him, before tilting and sliding to a stop straight in the middle of his palm.

He stared at it for a moment, then whooped with excitement. Something clattered onto the floor, and he spun around. Peter was looking at him with an affronted look on his face that was belied by the small smile on his lips when he noticed the water bottle.

"Dude," he half-whined, "I'm happy for you and all but don't shout! You made me move the CD case too quickly, it nearly hit Michelle and she'd kill us all if that happened."

Sure enough, when he looked over, there was a CD sitting next to a glaring Michelle. She pointed to the CD case and, when it started to float, flicked her finger at Peter. He shrieked and held his arms over his face, and the CD stopped right in front of his face before clattering onto the floor.

Peter looked up after a moment and saw the CD case. He looked at Michelle and asked, "Was that you or me?"

"You. I fully intended for it to hit you. Apparently you're stronger than you look, though that's not saying much. Also-"

"Hey!" Peter protested.

"- I could actually feel a barrier. Do that again."

He managed to get out a " _Wait...!_ " before Michelle picked the CD up and flicked it at him again. This time Peter had a different idea; he also pointed at the CD and held it there, and the CD stopped in mid-air again, but this time, it was visibly wavering, back and forth, between Michelle and Peter. Peter gasped a bit, and started to glare at the CD. Curiously, Michelle also seemed to be struggling. 

This kept going for several seconds, the rest of the crew watching on, before Peter seemed to give up, and immediately the CD came rocketing at his face. He yelped at the speed and held his hands up in front of his face again, where - once again - the CD stopped, before Michelle relaxed and put down her finger.

"Interesting," she murmured, "there was definitely resistance there, but it was different to when we were both controlling the CD. Can we do that one more time, and this time I want to know if you can make whatever you're doing visible." It wasn't a question.

"Do I have a choice in this?" sulked Peter. "Fine, sure," he added hastily when Michelle glared at him again, "I'll do it."

Satisfied, Michelle nodded, and one more time, the CD hovered in the air until Michelle flung it in Peter's direction. He seemed less panicked, if only because he knew it was coming, and slung his hands in front of his face, this time so he could see through his arms.

The CD hurtled towards him until it was a few centimetres away from his arms, at which point - _ping_ \- it hit a barrier and seemed to send ripples of visibility through it.

Kris inhaled.

The shield was... almost literally made out of light _. Almost_ literally, because though Kris was staring straight at it, his eyes didn't hurt. It might be accurate to imagine a screen of nearly opaque plastic _mixed_ with light. From the front, Kris could barely make out the outline of Peter behind it.

"Keep that up!" shouted Michelle, sounding unusually riled up as she scrambled off her seat and jogged towards Peter. She stopped just in front of him and peering at the shield from all angles.

She knocked her knuckles on it lightly, sending ripples through it, and Peter jerked back, arms making a half-aborted move as if he was going to cover his ears, and the shield flickered and then disappeared.

Michelle didn't look too disappointed, only shooting him a half glare for putting his arms down. "Did you feel anything when I knocked on the shield?"

"I.." Peter trailed off, looking puzzled. "Yes, actually. It felt kind of like you knocked on the side of my head. But the CD didn't feel like that at _all_. It was more like if it had literally bumped into a shield I was holding. I could feel the impact indirectly, but..."

"Interesting..." murmured Michelle, before turning to the rest of them.

"Who's going next?" she asked.

Liessa stepped forward, raising her hand. "I volunteer as tribute!" she half-shouted cheerfully.

Michelle smirked. "Good," she said, and then she flicked her wrist in a half turn and Liessa turned upside down.

Liessa yelled, and Kris fought the urge to hide or throw his water bottle at Michelle to distract her, reminding himself that it wasn't actually hurting Liessa and that Michelle meant it well.

Liessa started laughing almost immediately, anyways, which calmed his nerves.

"This is awesome!" she cried. "Do you think you can hold up your concentration if I do it to you?"

"Don't try that immediately," retorted Michelle. "Wait until we have more experience with this and have mattresses underneath us."

Liessa mock-pouted and Michelle turned her back the right way up with another twist of her hand.

"Okay. Daniel! Get your notebook and take notes, I want everything recorded including what's already happened, starting from Kris's incident and up to what Liessa and Peter are gonna say to answer my questions."

"Okay," muttered Daniel, and made to go out of the room, until he turned around at the doorway. "Michelle," he called.

She turned around to face him.

"Is it okay if I don't try anything until we have this all worked out? I'd rather at least one of our crew is able to function if there are unknown side effects."

She nodded. "Sensible. I should have thought of that. Okay, you're excused from any experimenting we do."

Daniel left the room, and Michelle turned to Peter and Liessa, who were watching the doorway with a bit of trepidation. Kris wondered if Daniel's words had shaken them.

"Liessa!" Michelle barked. Liessa jumped and turned towards her guiltily. "Did you feel anything around your ankles or something that was holding you up?"

"Um..." she thought, "Yes but no? I honestly don't know how to describe it, it's like... God, um... Ok, I have an analogy of sorts. Do you ever feel, when you're about to fall asleep on your bed, that you're both weightless and infinitely heavy as well? It was kinda.. like that. Like, I could feel _something_ around my feet holding me up, but I also couldn't? Gosh, I dunno, actually, I think it's something you have to experience yourself."

At some point, Kris had started only half-listening and was putting on his own little act with his water bottle, levitating it and spinning it with little circles of his finger and pretending to dribble it while trying to make sure it never actually touched the floor or his hand. He was making it turn circles around his head when he got an idea; if Michelle could control other people, was it possible to control your own body and...

He whipped his head up to Michelle. "When I jump, can you slide the mattress under me?" Liessa and Michelle stopped talking, turning towards him.

"I wanna try!" Liessa said.

"Ok, Liessa, collaborate with Kris on whatever he's thinking. Peter and I are going to see if he can recreate the shield in a smaller size and stick it under a microscope. I want to know what that stuff was made of and if we can make it artificially with the same.. Properties, for lack of a better word.."

"We are?" Peter murmured half-heartedly, but Kris knew he was just as interested in how this worked as Michelle was, if not more. Peter _was_ the main chemist-slash-engineer on the ship, after all.

Just then, Daniel came back into the room, notebook in hand and pen in the other.

"So I had a thought while I was getting these; I should monitor all your vitals to see if there are any immediate side effects to doing this, whether it's only once or almost all the time."

"Right. But not now. I'll fill you in while Peter uses the microscopes and then you can write down what he sees."

Kris and Liessa tuned the others out and turned to each other instead.

"What are we doing, anyways?" Liessa asked, tilting her head.

"You know how Michelle kinda controlled your body?" She nodded. "I want to see if this thing we can do includes flying."

Liessa's eyes brightened. "Oh!" she gasped. "Oh my god, that would be _epic_!"

"Yeah," Kris nodded. "But I probably won't be able to convince myself I can do it for a few go's, which is why I want the mattress under me when I jump."

"Got it," Liessa nodded determinedly. She stuck her hand out and poked her tongue out for good measure, focusing on the mattress on the other side of the room until it started sliding over to them. It stopped right behind Kris.

"On your mark," she said. Kris flashed a smile.

"Ready," he muttered, tensing his legs, "...Go!"

He sprang up, trying to imagine his body freezing in midair.

Like he thought, he crashed down as soon as his body realized what was happening.

"Yup, that didn't work," he groaned, peeling off the mattress. He turned to Liessa. "Would you mind doing to me what Michelle did with you? I want to see if I can recreate it on myself, and if that works."

"Ooh! Sure! I'll hold you up, and then since I've already experienced it, we can both try at the same time!" Liessa clapped her hands together.

They tried again.

And again.

And _again_.

Multiple times to no avail, and they were sitting on the mattress in defeat when Liessa jumped up in sudden excitement.

"I've got it!" She cried exuberantly. "Or, well, I think I have an idea of how to do it." Kris watched in curious fascination as she seemed to concentrate deeply, relaxing her face and taking deep breaths. Then she widened her stance, and put her arms out to her sides, palms parallel to the floor.

"This is for you, Mr. Stark," she muttered, and closed her eyes.

Almost hesitantly, her hands started to glow, what seemed like beams of pure white energy coming out of her palms. They looked a bit like fire coming out of a blowtorch, only wider, and less colourful. Her feet began to peel off the ground, revealing that the same thing was happening to them. When she had completely lifted off, she opened her eyes slowly.

"If you couldn't tell by my excessively regulated breathing, I'm trying not to freak out, but I'm glad it worked. Hey, be ready with the mattresses, okay? I'm gonna try add a little more energy to this."

Kris nodded nervously, positioning his hand so that he could react quickly if anything bad happened. Liessa's hands fired up even brighter, and with a wild shriek, she flew up, losing her balance halfway to the ceiling. Her legs shot out from under her, and the lights on her hands and feet flickered off. Kris quickly sent the mattress under her so she wouldn't break her skull on the floor. With a thump, Liessa's body hit the slightly-hovering mattress, and slowly it floated down to the ground. Peter and Michelle had abandoned their research in favour of staring at Liessa and Kris. They'd probably been distracted from it by Liessa's scream.

Slowly, Liessa sat up. She held her hands up to her face, palms inward, and looked at Kris with a blank face. Her hands were shaking. So was the smile forming on her face.

"That was awesome," she whispered breathlessly. A wobbly laugh tore out of her throat, and she fell back onto the mattress. "That was _awesome_!" she yelled out, still laughing in a sort of shuddery manner that belied the adrenaline rush she'd just gotten.

Kris felt a little concerned for her, never mind her positive feelings about being flung around with no professional safety net to catch her. Liessa hopped up on her feet, stumbling a little, her legs quaking. Kris followed her, arms ready to catch her if she fell again.

She approached Michelle and Peter with increasingly long strides on increasingly strong legs. The were staring at her, faces a little too pale to be anything but shocked. Peter's eyes flicked between her and the mattress.

"Did you see that?!" she cried exuberantly, stopping in front of them. "I-I flew! I _flew_! I flew and it felt so-so amazing, so natural, oh my god you guys have to try it, it was like a part of my life I didn't even know I was forgetting! It was the best feeling in the world, the best thing I've ever done, it beat _sky-diving_ even and that's because I wasn't diving this time, I was _flying_!" She took a deep breath and seemed to be about to go on with her rant, but just then Daniel stomped over from where he'd been observing Peter and Michelle's experiments.

"Liessa! What the fuck!?" A frown was plastered onto his face, but even Kris, who'd known him the shortest, knew that it was hiding a smile to rival Liessa's. "You can't just- sit down, you look like you're about to fall over! Let me take your pulse, I leave you alone for _ten minutes_ , I cannot _believe_ you just did that-"

"I just did that!" gasped Liessa. "I flew, self-powered flight, guys, you don't understand! This is a thing humans have wanted for _millennia._ This could change everything about people's lives, guys, we _have_ to figure this thing out now!"

"Once we have enough information about what's happening to us, we'll make the decision about whether or not to tell the world that the Avengers is possible after all," Michelle said drily. Peter gasped.

"Avengers, assemble!" He cried with a smile on his face.

Everyone stared at him in silence. It was at times like these, Kris thought to himself, that he really remembered what a nerd Peter was about superheroes.

Then he remembered that they were all nerds. Liessa had figured out how to fly by mimicking _Iron Man_ , for fuck's sake.

"Well, in any case," Michelle broke the silence, "we know how to fly now. That could be useful for missions. Daniel, is there anything wrong with Liessa, other than her personality?"

"Rude," muttered Liessa half-heartedly. The adrenaline looked like it was wearing off, because her whole body was starting to shiver. Daniel flicked her in retribution, and answered Michelle.

"No, her vital signs seem normal for the situation. James, can you get a... James?" Daniel looked around in confusion. "Where did James go? He was here before I left for my notebook, right?"

It was true. James had been in the very corner of the room, trying to get his toolbox to float. Last Kris had seen him, he'd been staring wide-eyed at Michelle ramming the CD case at Peter's shield.

"...I feel really bad," Liessa whispered sheepishly. "I forgot all about him..."

"I'm sure it's fine," Kris said hopefully, trying not to feel too bad. "I'll go look for him, he can't be too far. Only so many rooms in the ship-"

"Uh.. You- you guys can't see me? I'm right here..." a voice floated towards them from somewhere in the room

"Jaaames? You're here?" Daniel asked in confusion, brows creased as he looked around the room. "Uh, buddy, hate to tell you this, but you appear to be a disembodied voice? By chance did you turn yourself invisible or something?" Daniel rethought what he'd just said and visibly brightened. "You turned invisible?! That's so cool, dude!"

"Is there ever going to be an end to this weird new crap we can do??" Michelle sounded both frustrated and intrigued.

"G-guys??" James's voice sounded oddly panicked, until he uttered the next sentence. "I-I don't think I can make myself visible..." He sounded close to crying, and the room fell into utter silence for a few seconds.

" _James_ ," Liessa said. "It's gonna be alright, okay? Do you want a hug?" She opened her arms towards the seemingly empty room. A few seconds of silence passed, before James replied.

"Yes, please." A sniffle followed this statement and Kris heard shuffling footsteps approach the group. A second later something seemed to hit Liessa gently, because she rocked back a bit and closed her arms around what they assumed to be James.

The group stood in a semi-circle around Liessa as she shushed James quietly. A solemn and slightly awkward air hung over them all.

After a few minutes Peter coughed quietly.

"If it makes you feel any better, James, I think I see your outline now...?" he said.

Kris looked up quickly, checking for himself. If he squinted a little, he _could_ faintly see a wavering outline of a person roughly the same height as James.

"Really? You're not messing with me?" whispered James.

"No, it's true," Kris confirmed. "I can see you too, I think. Look, hold out your hand? I'll find it."

The silhouette moved. It was definitely getting more solid, too. Kris stepped around to James's side to make sure he had the placement right, then reached out a hand and grabbed James's.

"See?" he said gently, squeezing. "You're not invisible, and even when you were, it was going to get better quickly."

A stifled sob was heard, and with a strangled little _pop_ , James came back into view. He gasped a little and tore his hand out of Kris's to put it in front of his face. He started to cry in earnest.

"I'm not invisible," Kris heard him whisper, before he put his face in his hands.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten minutes later, after James (and for that matter everyone else) had calmed down from their day of discovering things, James muttered somewhat abashedly, "I'm sorry for all the fuss, guys. I was just thinking- I mean, I guess while you were all trying out your different things I just felt.. kind of - _invisible_ , you know. So I got a little freaked out when you guys actually couldn't see me. You all might not realise - I hope you never _have_ to realise - but people acting as if you don't exist and then realising that to them you might _not_ is - it's terrifying to look down and realise - 'Oh god, my body's not underneath me'. I guess I kind of pulled it out of proportion and it spiralled into an existential crisis."

"Oooh," shivered Liessa. "That _does_ sound scary. It's like blinking and suddenly you're a ghost."

Just then, Daniel came towards them with his notebook in hand. "All done!" he announced. "I've finished writing everything we've found out." He sat down, and after a bit of silence from everyone continued to speak. "Can I address the word nobody in this ship has said yet despite it being obviously what is going on?"

Everyone stiffened.

"Would it help all your little scientist nerves if I spelled it out first?" said Daniel amusedly. "Fine. If I must: M. A. G. I. C." He waited a few more seconds, then said in a flat tone. "It's magic, guys. You're doing magic. Obviously."

"Not obviously, actually," said Liessa in a prim tone. "There are a lot of new factors we as humans are experiencing for the first time. There might be a form of radiation we can't measure that's messing with our minds and making us all hallucinate on a hive-mind scale."

"Or some factors that have been taken away..." Kris was pretty sure Michelle hadn't meant to say that out loud, and even so it seemed like only he and Peter had caught what she'd said. They looked at another warily, and an agreement was made through their gazes that sometime after this, they'd track her down and ask her to explain.

"Anyways," continued Michelle in a normal volume, "can you summarise the stuff you've written so far?"

"Sure. First bit of the notebooks about the first things that happened, like Kris's water bottle, and then goes into what we tried during the week after, and what we've learned _doesn't_ work, like concentrating really hard. I've got down Michelle's description of how to do it accurately, the CD battle between Michelle and Peter and what it felt like for both of them, the shield Peter made and the different feeling between the CD case and Michelle knocking on it, and a rough description and sketch of what the shield looked like. I've got what Kris and Liessa were doing, and possible theories for why they couldn't fly before what Liessa did, what Liessa _did_ do that worked and her thoughts on it. I've got her physiological reactions to flying, I've got down James's thing and theories on what caused it. I've also written possible reasons all this is happening now. That's all, but I'd like if you could also tell me if you and Peter found anything by putting Peter's shield thing under a microscope, if you can?"

"Sure." Peter smiled. "It was actually really weird.."

"Wait," Kris interrupted quickly. "Before you guys get too absorbed in that, could I read what you actually wrote in the notebook? I'm curious about your theories and stuff."

Daniel handed the notebook to Kris without pause, turning back to Peter.

"Right!" Peter resumed what he was saying. "It was really weird, because it turns out that even with the most powerful lenses we used, we couldn't see any individual atoms! Michelle was going to see if she could..."

Kris stopped listening to what Peter was saying (although it sounded interesting too, he was going to have to ask Peter to repeat it to him another time) and instead opened the notebook.

As Daniel had said, the first two and a half pages were dedicated to explaining the events that had happened the first week of being up in the ship - Kris accidentally summoning his water bottle, James's floating tools and so on. Then it went into the free time meet-ups to try recreating what had happened, putting emphasis on the lack of success, before explaining more in-depth what had happened during the meeting when Michelle had summoned the book _('I'm using 'summon' for lack of a better word, but it doesn't quite fit. If I find a better way to describe it, I'll change the wording,'_ Daniel had written _)_ and her explanation/hypothesis on why what they had been doing before hadn't worked. He noted the almost immediate improvements of everyone's efforts after what Michelle had said.

 _Ooh, this looks interesting,_ Kris thought with interest, when he reached the summary of the CD battle. Daniel had written step by step what had happened during it, starting when Michelle flicked the case towards Peter the first time, and ending when the shield dissipated after Michelle knocked on it. Underneath were little notes on how Peter had described the differences to Daniel.

 _'Peter claims that the CD case and Michelle's fist 'felt' different to one another (again, am using the word 'felt' for lack of a better word, but doesn't quite fit the situation.) Stated that the CD case hitting the 'shield' was somewhat similar to it hitting a shield strapped to Peter's arm - impact could be felt indirectly by Peter, including the direction the impact was coming from. Shield didn't move at all when CD case hit. Shield anchored into place by something? By what? Peter also states that he didn't actually 'feel' anything from the case hitting the shield physically, for instance he didn't feel as though he was being pushed against, unlike if he had been using an actual shield, where the shield blocked the blow but not the push-back. Acts like those shields one usually sees in fiction involving magic, where shield is a barrier that doesn't move but is breakable and is not tied to caster's physical presence. Not sure if Peter's shield is breakable. However, Michelle knocking felt as though she were_ _~~knocking directly onto his head~~ ,_ _knocking onto a helmet Peter was wearing, despite actual knocking being 1) on the shield and not Peter, and 2) the knocking being at roughly the height of Peter's chest. Possible reasons for translation of knocking going to Peter's head instead of chest could be that the 'shield' comes from mental effort? Shield might be manifestation of will to protect oneself? (Section above crossed out after Peter corrected himself when asked directly about it.) Shield had firm edges, looked solid. Had a slight glow. As of yet, unsure what shield is made out of. Further observations of the shield pending._

_Shield appeared when Peter raised his arms, and disappeared when he lowered them. He hasn't tried making a 'shield' without raising his arms. Possible instinctive defense mechanism? Nobody else has tried to make one, so not sure if appearance and properties of shield are generic or unique to Peter. If unable to make shield without raising arms, perhaps it's because the idea of this magic stuff 'does not compute' with our brains, or we somehow need to visualise or act out what we want for it to happen. More notes on shield pending._

Daniel had written some really interesting ideas, though Kris wasn't exactly sure when he'd asked Peter the questions. Presumably while he and Michelle were trying to put the shield under a microscope. He kept reading, interested to see what other ideas Daniel had.

 _Use of magic seems to rely on emotions or wants? For instance, Peter wanted to be warm, and then a physical manifestation of what he considered to be warm (the fire) was breathed out. Interestingly, when questioned about whether he had any ideas about why breathing out fire made him warmer, he said he wasn't completely sure but it might have to do with Avatar? Have not watched Avatar, but maybe the blue aliens are magic somehow?? In addition, Michelle's explanation was similar. Stating that you shouldn't try to control it, rather, you just had to_ _want_ _it. If that's the case, then Peter's shield was formed because he_ _wanted_ _to be protected, even if he didn't consider making a 'shield' out of solid light or whatever it is. Like natural reflexes?? Should explore this in more detail._

 _Gestures seem to make the 'magic' easier to control. For example, holding out your hand, flicking a finger, holding your arms in front of your head, et cetera. seems to help control it. Again, not sure whether it's possible to do the 'magic'_ _without_ _using gestures. Many of the things we could do seemed to be based on movies and books and such. Two theories on this: 1, we are all just a bunch of goddamn nerds who have an easier time visualising things that come out of works of fiction. If this is the case, then it's possible that the use of magic can be used to replicate almost anything fictional, and is effectively basically limitless in its use. OR 2, those works of fiction were actually based off of how this 'magic' is working. If this theory is true, it implies that somehow the functions of this 'magic' found its way into the authors and directors heads, even though until literally a couple weeks ago nobody from Earth thought any of it was possible. Might be ingrained into our brains? Might have been telepathically put into people's heads via alien technology. That last one's a bit of a stretch, but since we're dealing with what seems to be limitless magic, let's hold off on the scepticism, yeah?_

Kris stared in amazement at the notebook. Daniel's ideas went into detail that Kris hadn't expected, and moreover they made _sense_. Now that he thought about it, Kris had never done anything with the 'magic' without using some sort of hand gesture, like when bouncing his water bottle or -

Kris paused, and thought back a bit. No, that wasn't quite right. The very first time he'd purposefully summoned his water bottle (and Daniel was right, the word 'summoned' didn't sit right), he hadn't used his hands at all. He'd just stared at the water bottle and told it to do a flip. It had already been moving by the time he'd put his hand out to catch it.

But it was also true that it seemed easier and more natural to use his hands when visualising what he wanted to happen.

He turned to Daniel, who was eagerly discussing possible uses and variances with the shield with Michelle.

"Hey, Daniel," he called. Daniel turned to him with his eyebrow raised in question. "One of your theories had been disproved." He beckoned for Daniel to come to him with a jerk of his head.

"What?" Daniel asked with interest, hurrying over. "Which one?" He bent over the notebook to see what Kris was pointing at.

"I didn't use my hands when I asked my water bottle to come over to where I was, just before the CD battle thing. The most I did was stare at it really hard."

"Amazing..." murmured Daniel. He took the notebook back and took out a pen from his pocket. "Did you notice any difference between using hand gestures and not using them? Any difference in control, or power, or anything?" He looked up at Kris, hand poised to start writing.

Kris thought a bit, then shrugged with one shoulder. "I guess.. It's a lot easier to get stuff to happen with hand movement - like, I think it took a lot more concentration to get the water bottle to move without moving my hands than when I was using my hands to mimic dribbling it without touching it. It might have to do with how we were raised without this sort of- without magic, and we had to move things ourselves? I didn't really notice any difference in control, except that like I just said, it was easier to get it to move when I used my hands to... Show it, I guess? To show it what to do. Same with power."

Daniel scribbled quickly into his notebook. After a little, he stopped writing, and looked up at Kris again. "Alright, I've got all that down. Did you have anything to add to any other theories or ideas?"

"Yeah, definitely." Kris nodded. Peter came over to listen to what they were talking about. "The idea you had about how a lot of the things that worked seemed to be replicating fiction was really cool. I think in terms of what we _can_ do with this stuff is really limited to what our ideas about what... 'magic'... _is_ , and that's influenced a lot by what we've read and watched in works of fiction that involve magic. We'd probably be even worse off if there were no stories about magic at all, because then we'd be trying to figure out this thing we've never heard of before. Going back to works of fiction, I'd be really interested to experiment with the different adaptations of the magic trope, like whether it's possible to use 'words of power' or magic circles, or whether it's all direct manipulation of the space around us."

"I really hope none of this has side effects, because I'm getting excited about the possibilities actual magic opens up to humanity," Daniel muttered. He knelt down onto the ground and used it as a makeshift table for him to write on.

"God," Peter marveled. "I can't decide whether to make a joke about magic being the final frontier instead of space, or quote Armstrong." He beamed at them both, then posed so that his legs were set wide apart and his knees were almost at ninety degrees. He put one fist onto his hip and the other in front of his chest and said in a comically deep voice, "One small step for man, one giant leap for humankind."

Liessa looked around from the other side of the room at his voice and burst out laughing when she saw Peter, but a voice in the back of Kris's head couldn't help but agree with him.

Whatever happened with this new 'magic', it was going to change humanity in every way.

**Author's Note:**

> WELL  
> This has been a thing in my OneNote for more than a year. It was going to be longer, but then I was like, 'Fuck, any longer and it might as well be split into different works. ....Wait a second.' And thus I decided to end it where it was clear that there was more story waiting, so that I could break up this amazing ever-growing universe of stories in my head into smaller chunks, to make it easier both to read and write. This way, I'll only have to focus on a couple plot points at a time instead of trying to shove every idea into a single story.
> 
> If you liked my little entrance fic, please leave kudos or comments. If you have any criticisms, even the tiny ones nitpicking at spellling and grammar or wordings that could have been written better, again, I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in reading more about my wonderful characters, then don't worry, because I have a literal ton of ideas about this universe, and even more stories to tell.
> 
> Thank you for reading!!  
> (side note: I have enabled comment moderation, so if your comment doesn't show up, don't worry, I'll still have seen it and will approve of it as soon as I can, unless there was something inappropriate in it.)


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